News Brief

August 30, 1943

New York (Aug. 29)

While refugee immigration to the United States during the ten years of the Hitler regime has increased the population of this country by less than two-tenths of one percent, the newcomers have made contributions to victory and to the enrichment of American life out of all proportion to their numbers, it was reported at a meeting under the auspices of the National Refugee Service, held last night at the Belmont Plaza Hotel.

Edward J. Ennis, Director of the Alien Enemy Control Unit of the Department of Justice, addressing the meeting, declared that the newcomers have repaid this country for its hospitality by loyalty and devotion to the war effort. As evidence that the government’s faith in admitting the refugees was well founded, Mr. Ennis revealed that among the 260,000 emigres from Europe who have reached our shores since 1933 the Department of Justice found only a scant handful whom it was necessary to detain as dangerous or potentially dangerous to the war effort.